Monday, October 2, 2017

Bursting the NRA's Bubble

It's almost like certain ppl have to face a massacre to understand why we should try to stop it...
-or face disaster before understanding FEMA's importance
-or get cancer to like Obamacare
-or have their own friends deported to see the maladies of our immigration system
-or see their child get poisoned to care about regulation
-or have their house destroyed in a freakishly powerful storm to understand the dangers of global warming
-or get enslaved to learn civil liberties
-or get abused by cops to understand Black Lives Matter
-or be unfairly accused to appreciate justice.

When I was a kid I read Ayn Rand and believed in rigorous independence...while living at my parent's house and getting free food, clothes, shelter, or education. I grew up and realized that my blindness allowed me to take a capricious and unreasonable stance. As a child I didn't have to worry about the consequences. I was given a little bubble to develop my adolescent mind, until the bubble popped one day and then it was bills, deadlines, relationships, bosses, taxes, risks, danger, opportunity, death, dying, healthcare, disease, love, horror, confusion, and a world that really didn't give a fuck about crushing my smarmy insulated opinions underneath the weight of reality. I realized that my standing in the world was very precarious and dependent on the kindness of millions of people. My advantages aren't God given or based upon me being an 'awesome guy,' or even protected by gathering up enough money. We are not these rugged and wild individuals who just need to worry about ourselves. To think and live the Randian way isn't a Republican utopia, or a vision of truth. It is a hell constructed of falsity, ego, and delusion.

My life is precarious and this society is fragile. My advantages are delicately balanced on a razor's edge. That is why I cherish my privileges. That is why I care about human life, and that's why I want others to have the same benefits as me. That is why tragedies like mass shootings and hurricanes don't have to directly impact me in order for me to care. Human life is a very gentle thing that is easily destroyed. There is no safe place to avoid a massacre. I could be next...or you.